6 Open Source Kits to Kickstart Your Urban Gardening

Developed by a team sprinkled all over the world, the open source, eco-friendly, "no tools required" gardening kits designed by AKER aim to radically simplify urban agriculture. Whether you want to set up a rooftop garden or house a couple of chickens in your backyard, AKER has a solution for you.

1. GrowSquare

GrowSquare is AKER's most basic building block. Designed as an entry-level system for urban growers, the raised bed square can be assembled in under a minute.

2. GrowGrid

Raised beds are a great choice for planting, particularly in urban environments that may force growers to set up shop on a rooftop. Up to five levels can be added to the GrowGrid and configured in various arrangements, depending on your needs.

3. GroWall

This multi-level, wall-mounted planter proves that, sometimes, the trickle down theory actually holds — or drains — water. The ideal set up for herbs and flowers, the rail-based GroWall can be used inside or out.

4. WormHaus

Even city dwellers can get their compost on with this little beauty. WormHaus — or, rather, its occupants — turns your food scraps into nutrient-dense fertilizer. With all five levels installed, WormHaus can convert around seven pounds of waste each week.

5. Colorado Top Bar

With bees in crisis all over the world, maintaining a hive wherever possible is, essentially, a civic duty. And, with the CTB, backyard beekeepers can do it in style. No equipment is necessary to harvest the honey or wax from the box, and the bees get build a natural comb.

6. EggHaus

And then there's EggHaus — the starter home of chicken coops. Capable of housing two hens, EggHaus's design features a roosting pole, ventilated sides, an open floor, a locking door, and a raised nesting box.

Having won prestigious literary competitions in both grade school and junior high, I attended college with a Scripps Howard Foundation scholarship, earned a BA in Journalism, and interned at Entertainment

Having won prestigious literary competitions in both grade school and junior high, I attended college with a Scripps Howard Foundation scholarship, earned a BA in Journalism, and interned at Entertainment Tonight. Since that time, I have worked in pretty much every aspect of the music industry -- except artist, and I'm happy to sit that one out.